Sunday, May 14, 2017

HIRA: No Endorsement for Hawaii GOP State Party Chair (Nothing But RINOs)

BREAKING NEWS:

HIRA's Endorsement for State GOP Chair . . . NONE OF THE ABOVE

Aloha Republicans:

Yes, HIRA's official position on the 2017 party leadership race between two sets of RINO's is "None of the Above".

The lack of enthusiasm for either candidate running for state chairman today is evident in the extremely low turnout at today's state convention on Kauai. How could there be any real enthusiasm? The Hawaii GOP has not engaged in a serious examination of its many problems since the 2016 election (or the 2014 election, or 2012). All problems are being swept under the rug for the sake of today's big day.

2,000 openings for delegates and alternates at today's convention have only been filled by a few hundred; many of whose airfare was paid for by the campaigns of Ostrov and Tupola (i.e. they wouldn't have shown up otherwise). Not even having the founder of HART and champion of spending on Mufi's rail system, RINO Charles Djou, was much of a draw.

If our party ever wants to succeed in Hawaii, we need to go back to the drawing board and start over. There's not a dime's worth of difference between the two slates of candidates, nor the top of the ticket rivalry.

You've got Andria Tupola who votes with Democrats most of the time, has done a dismal job as minority leader since Beth Fukumoto got run out the job (by HIRA), and she can't even get the endorsement of fellow RINO caucus member and co-worker Bob McDermott (who supports Ostrov, probably because his sad gubernatorial ambitions cannot afford to alienate Ostrov's puppetmaster Miriam Hellreich). As the beneficiary of extensive cheating and manipulation of party elections over the past few months by Fritz Rohlfing, Jack James, Bob Hickling, Steve Yoder and Boyd Ready, Tupola is practically disqualified right out the gate.

With Shirlene Ostrov, you have someone who nobody in our party even knew existedless than one year ago. Ran a poor campaign for congress, raised very little money, and got trounced badly. Military background? That's no guarantee of anything. Tulsi Gabbard is in the military. Clearly, not a good indicator anymore. Worst of all, Ostrov has been handpicked by Pat Saiki, Miriam Hellreich and the Oahu League of RINO Women -- the very collection of RINO's who have controlled and driven the Hawaii GOP to its worst point in 63 years of history. Hellreich and Saiki ARE the Hawaii GOP's good ole boy network. To position the politically inexperienced Ostrov as an 'outsider' when she is backed and controlled by the two most nefarious party insiders is a huge joke. Hellreich and Saiki gave us Fritz Rohlfing two years ago their with enthusiastic endorsements of a guy who turned out to be the worst party leader in history (even worse than Pat Saiki). Here we go again. We're supposed to pretend that we forgot the past two years.

Just ask Kauai county chair Steve Yoder. "This is the lowest point, I think, the Republican party's been." We need to buy Yoder a mirror so he can understand the problem. Not a single Republican elected on Maui after his years of 'leadership' and his disinterested Republican pals gave him the job for another two years (somehow expecting different results). Seriously!

And that's about to happen at the state party level today.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel is a phrase which comes to mind when looking at the running mates of Ms. Tupola and Ms. Ostrov. It's a truly dismal situation that won't cause Democrats to lose any sleep.

For your benefit and in the interest of time, HIRA rolled the dice and picked just a few running mates from both slates of unqualified party officer candidates so you get the idea. So many red flags. Yes, you'll get the idea.

Tupola's KAEO KEALOHA-LINDSEY, her running mate for vice-chair of Coordinated Campaigns. Tupola insists that her team is "qualified", including her candidate to run the entire Republican campaign effort for two years. Before we get to his limited experience, let's be clear that he was a Democrat campaigner. Just started working a few months ago in Tupola's office at the State Capitol. In May 2015, he was an intern at Newman Partners, "a top level consulting firm, focused on fundraising and strategy for progressive political campaigns in Washington state." One month later, in June 2015, he was a "field organizer" for liberal, pro-rail, drunk driving Parsons Brinckerhoff puppet city council candidate in Seattle. (Yes, Debora Juarez is a Democrat.) Yep, Tupola can really pick 'em.

Ostrov's PAT SAIKI is her last minute running mate for vice-chair of Coordinated Campaigns. "Last minute" because Hellreich had people signing BLANK candidate petitions in recent weeks for Ostrov's unnamed running mates because they hadn't even been picked yet. The last minute selection of Saiki et al shows what an uninspired gang Hellreich assembled for her puppet Ostrov. Look a little closer and you'll recall that Saiki's dismal party leadership had her overseeing the dismal job by Boyd Ready and Bob Hickling over the past four years. Ready and Hickling held this same post under Saiki. And we have less Republicans in office today. Bad sign. Worse, Saiki is no whiz at either computers or strategy. So it's clear that our party's geriatric celebrity from the 80's will not cause Democrats to lose any sleep with her record of failure. Factor in Saiki's RINO credentials (agreeing with Democrats on most issues), and you have someone who will fail to provide voters with compelling reasons to vote GOP in 2018. Remember, we are supposed to improve our chances of winning elections, NOT reduce the likelihood.

Tupola's FERN MOSSMAN. During the past two years, Mossman helped to destroy the Honolulu County Republican Party by taking a leadership position and sitting back silently as the party's county leadership never met, never planned, never executed, and never did a single one of its responsibilities. A more shameless puppet and do-nothing example of Rohlfing-like leadership you will not find. Tupola says her team is diverse and qualified. No, it's not. Clearly, Tupola believes that it's okay for party officers to take the job but then not do it.

You see? Underwhelming. It's clear that Ostrov and Tupola were only kidding about running the Hawaii GOP any better than Fritz. We're witnessing a RINO civil war; the outcome of which will make the Hawaii GOP even weaker over the next two years.

So, how could HIRA possibly embrace either outcome today? The only right answer is "None of the Above".

The news media didn't even cover today's convention in advance because that's how irrelevant we've become.

Sorry, help is NOT on the way.

There's just no way to take Ostrov seriously when she's already in bed with liberals Hellreich, Saiki and other RINO insiders. And how can someone who is only able to get 20% in an election supposed to lead the GOP to higher ground. Maybe a few years as a precinct chairman will provide some seasoning and an independent point of view.

And it's not really possible to take Tupola seriously either. Last night, Hawaii News Now mistakenly reported that Ostrov is running to replace Beth Fukumoto as state chair of the Hawaii GOP. That doesn't speak well of Andria Tupola if top news reporters think that Beth Fukumoto hasn't been replaced in the past four months. Tupola has had four months to kick Democrat okole as the top elected Republican in Hawaii. But not a single voter came away from the recently finished session of the State Legislature believing that Republicans are any different than Democrats. Wasted opportunity.

Fellow Republicans, these people are the reason we're losing. They have no hope of setting us on a winning and meaningful path. To believe in either RINO gang is an exercise in self-delusion.

They will tell you what you want to hear to win today. They will give you a plane ticket to/from Kauai. But the sorry proof of what's in store is the record of do-nothingness and smug, self-importance. 2018 is being written off.

Finally, the RINO civil war coming to a head today has nothing to do with improving our party's political chances. It's about one issue and one issue alone: our poorly located, overpriced, albatross headquarters. If this wasn't an issue, there would be one slate of pre-approved RINO officers reporting directly to Miriam Hellreich. A just-as-tragic outcome as what today will bring.

Yes, ironically, the two camps vying for control of the Hawaii GOP used to be the same unified camp of RINO's. Together, Hellreich, Saiki, Marumoto, Ward and Rohlfing (and lesser figures like Ready, Hickling, Mukk, et al) have used all of their power and influence to make sure the Hawaii Republican Party has no power and influence.

Sorry, but that won't change after today. RINO lightweights are not the solution we need. Today, May 13th, is NOT our lucky day.

NONE OF THE ABOVE. When the votes get counted on November 6, 2018, you'll understand exactly what HIRA is saying.